Written for DelusionalDoll. Prompts given - Pairing: Sirius/Remus, Genre: Romance, Prompt: Actor!AU


Practise Makes Perfect


Sirius Black had been rejected. Him. SIRIUS BLACK.

Sirius was in the zone, ready to act his scene. He walked over to his mark and waited for the go ahead.

...oOo...

He slumped down into the chair by the window, staring out at the people passing. "It's not fair that these people can be so happy, and I've just had my heart ripped out," his character, Tobias, stated. "How could he just reject me like that?"

Remus - playing Samuel Bates, paced the room, ignoring the cameras. "Not something that happens often, is it?" he commented. "Now you know how the rest of us feel."

Surprised by the tone of his best-friend's voice, Tobias turned around, fixing his gaze on a set of cold amber eyes. "What? You're supposed to be my best friend - to be supportive."

"Maybe so, but do you know how many hearts you've broken - you know what it's like to want someone so much that you would do anything for them, you'd take a bullet for them, and they don't even understand?"

"What does it matter to you?" Tobias asked, lifting himself from the seat and approaching Samuel. "You've never mentioned anything to me before about how I treat people - what does it matter - I treat you good, I treat the rest of my friends good. That's all that matters, right? How I treat the people that matter to me."

"What do you mean what does it matter?" Samuel replied, choking down a sob. "It matters because you understand how I feel for the first time. Do you know how hard it is to watch you use these guys and just discard them like that? To see you falling over yourself over Benjy when he never deserves you. If you want to use someone, use me. But all you truly care about is yourself."

"I don't understand," Tobias began slowly, trying to process the words.

"You don't understand?" Samuel repeated, despair in his voice. "I'm telling you how I feel, and you don't understand." Tears appeared in his eyes, which he angrily brushed away. "I'm trying to tell you that I've been in love with you longer than I can remember, and you've never even looked twice at me. I want you to know that I would do anything for you, I'd die for you, yet you go after someone like Benjy who just doesn't deserve you. I give up, Tobias. I'll never be enough - I'll never be good enough to grace your bed for a night. That thought alone is heartbreaking, but you don't care, do you?"

Tobias reached for him, and Samuel turned away.

"I know I'd never have a chance to get you to love me like I love you, but this is just rubbing it in my face."

"What did you mean, I could use you?" Tobias asked quietly.

"All the one-night stands that you regret the next morning," Samuel stated. "I'd be willing to let you use me so you wouldn't regret your actions each day - just to have that closeness with you - just to be able to pretend for that short time that I meant something more to you. But it's anyone who isn't me, that's your type, right?"

"Sam," Tobias whispered softly.

"You know what I hate the most? That I can't hate you at all," Samuel said, this time unable to hide the sob that escaped. "Not even a little bit." With those words, he turned and headed towards the door. As his hand fumbled to open the lock, Tobias spun him around, shoving the door closed, leaving little space between their bodies.

"I'm glad that you don't hate me, but I'm not letting you leave until we talk about this," Tobias insisted, reaching a hand out and resting it on Samuel's shoulder, playing with the slightly too long hair that was curling there. "Sam, you're my best friend, you are the most important person there is to me. If you're upset or if you're hurting, you need to talk to me."

"But you've dropped so many people who have been unhappy," Samuel began.

"None of them meant half as much to me as you do," Tobias admitted. "I can't believe I never realised you felt like this about me. You do realise that I would do anything for you - anything at all. I would die for you too."

He shifted forward. "And for the record, I'd never just use you, you are far too important to me to use like that. A night with you would be so much more."

Samuel's eyes widened, as Tobias' lips pressed against his, gently at first.

"AND CUT."

Sirius stepped away from Remus, turning to the director. "What's wrong this time?"

The Director looked between the pair. "Sirius, a bit more emotion in that scene, your best friend is in love with you, we need to see the confusion over what to do when you find out. Remus - I need you to be less calm and collected. You've just admitted your feelings and you regret admitting it. You want to get out of there."

The pair nodded. "We'll go over our lines," Sirius stated.

"Also the kiss... a soft, chaste kiss isn't what we're looking for," the Director, James Potter decided. "Something more passionate. Remus, your character has all these pent up feelings for Sirius' character and now he's kissing you, you want this moment more than anything. Sirius, yours is realising that the most important person to him could be something much more and is willing to make it more. You want to show your friend that you're willing to give it a shot, and also that you care about him more than anyone else in the world."

...oOo...

Sirius paced nervously around his dressing room. Remus had approached him after the scene, asking if Sirius wanted to go over it with him. They had arranged to meet in Sirius' dressing room to practice. Sirius wasn't nervous about the scene itself, it was the kiss that was hard for him.

Not that he was a bad kisser - quite the opposite - the issue was in fact that Sirius was about to kiss Remus Lupin... no more gentle kisses for the scene, this was to be more.

Sirius had wanted to do this since the first time he had seen Remus cast in a TV show at the age of seventeen. Remus had in fact been his celebrity crush and his idol, and it was only a couple of years after that when Charlus Potter had starred Sirius Black in his first film.

That had been the start. His best friend/Director had known about his feelings for the quiet actor for a long time, and this was the first time that James had cast them together. Part of him wondered if the kiss had been written in just specifically for him... not that it mattered, all that mattered was it was with Remus Lupin, the hottest actor in the business (in Sirius' opinion.)

A knock on the door brought him out of his thoughts and he glanced at himself in the mirror. Gone were the clothes that 'Tobias' was wearing, and Sirius had replaced them with a black t-shirt and a tight pair of jeans. He ran his fingers through his long hair before walking to the door.

He swung it open and Remus Lupin stood in the doorway with a bottle of wine and a takeaway. "I hope you don't mind, but I've ordered some food in," he motioned to the bag he was holding. "The wine is to help us relax, so when we redo the scene, we've not as nervous."

Sirius wanted to ask Remus why he was nervous about doing the scene, but could only nod and move aside to allow Remus to walk in.

...oOo...

One take-away later, and Sirius couldn't believe that he was sitting with Remus Lupin, laughing and joking as though they were old friends. The bottle of wine was almost all gone.

"You ready for the scene?" Remus finally asked, and Sirius could only nod.

They fell easily into their rolls, the pair slightly more relaxed as they went over their lines. Sirius followed Remus to the door where he pretended to fumble with the handle.

Sirius leaned in, his lips on Remus', but Remus responded eagerly. Before Sirius could process what was happening, hands were in his hair, tugging at it, pulling his head closer. Sirius shifted closer, pinning Remus to the door.

He deepened the kiss, enjoying the taste of Remus, his tongue teased against Remus' lips, delighted as they parted for him. His hand moved to Remus' cheek, running over the soft skin before trailing down his chest to his stomach, sliding to his hips and gripping them hard.

It would be so easy to just press him into the door a little bit more.

Sirius pulled away, almost panting. He grinned at Remus, who looked dazed, his legs looking ready to give out.

"Wow," Remus murmured.

"I know," Sirius replied. "I've wanted to do that for a long time now."

Remus frowned. "That's my line," he muttered. "You're supposed to say that you never realising kissing me would feel so perfect."

"That too," Sirius murmured, his gaze darting to Remus' lips. "I want to take you out to dinner, Remus."

It took Remus a moment before realisation took over. "So, you've wanted to do that for a while, Sirius?"

"Yeah, since I first saw you on TV," he admitted, hoping Remus would kiss him again.

Remus sighed in relief. "I'm glad I'm not the only one," Remus whispered. "I've been following your career for a bit, and I must admit that I'm glad we were cast as the leads in this together."

Sirius straightened up, smirking. "And we better make this the best we can," he murmured. "Should we practise the kiss again... or I think James was talking about there being a sex-scene added in." He watched Remus hopefully.

Remus let out a laugh. "I suppose you want to practise that too?"

"I wouldn't say no," Sirius replied, huskily. "But let's start with practising that kiss some more, shall we?"

"Yes, I think we need a lot of practise," Remus decided, grabbing Sirius' hand and dragging him over to the sofa.


Review Please :)


Also written for:

Stratego - prompt: Sirius Black had been rejected. Him. SIRIUS BLACK.

Gringotts Prompt Bank: Male OC name (10 points) Samuel Bates, no word: said (10 points); reject; heartbreaking; anyone.

Quidditch Pitch - "You know what I hate the most? That I can't hate you at all."